The Society was very active after the world war in granting aid to refugees and
survivors from Kielce in the displaced persons camps in Germany, Sweden and
other places and also aided Kielcers who immigrated to Israel with significant
sums.

Rabbi Mejer Blumenfeld,
the rabbi of Newark, New Jerseygrandson of Rabbi Izrael Sofer from Kielce

This organization is the most active in the United States. Thanks to its
massive support the charitable fund for immigrants from Kielce in Israel was
established, which thrives and develops thanks to the continual help of this
Society. The enlivening spirit of the Society is Mr. Max Agranow, a dear Jew,
faithful public activist, devoted heart and soul to the needs and works of the
public.

Max Agranow (Motke Agranowicz)the founder and driving spirit in the Society
of Kielcers in Los Angeles

[Page 305]

Organization of Kielcers in Toronto (Canada)
(Kielcer Society in Toronto)

The Kielce organization in Toronto is very active in extending aid to needy
Kielcers around the world and especially in Israel. Its continual aid to the
charitable fund of the Kielcers in Israel contributed immensely to the
development and thriving of this fund. Among those who stand at the head of the
organization and who are especially devoted to this work are the members Akiwa
Ladowski and Aharon Ladowski, who faithfully work for the public good and
especially the Kielcer public in Israel.

Akiwa Ladowskimember of the leadership of the Kielcer Society in Toronto

[Page 306]

Organization of Kielcers in Argentina

This organization was founded in its day by Mr. Lichtensztajn, ZL, and
provides services and aid for Kielcers in Buenos Aires and participates in the
cultural work of the organizations of Polish Jews in Argentina, which has a
broad range of activity. For a variety of reasons, mainly difficulty in
transferring funds and a low exchange rate, this organization has not
participated in aid to Jews of Kielce around the world except in Argentina, and
also did not participate in financial aid to Kielcers in Israel.

Organization of Kielcers in Paris (France)

There is an organization of people from Kielce in Paris as well, which is
active among the Kielcers there mainly in extending legal aid vis a vis the
authorities in getting work permits and trade licenses and obtaining French
citizenship.

Besides this, the organization is active in obtaining reparations from Germany
for those who were tortured in the Nazi concentration camps during the war.

For technical reasons this description was
not printed in the chapter that dealt with the
political parties in Kielce.

A History of the Poalei Zion Movement (left) in Kielce

by Chaim Posloszni and Szaul Goldman

The history of the Poalei Zion Movement in Kielce actually begins back in
1904/5. Kielce was one of the first cities in Poland in which groups of
Poalei Zion started.

As an active party, the movement arose in Kielce only at the end of the
Austrian occupation during world War I and with the establishment of the state
of Poland.

1918 was the inaugural year of the labor movement in Poland, which at the time
emerged from underground to a public life.

Poalei Zion was then the only labor party on the Jewish streets of Kielce. At
its head then stood Lazar Szulman, Zalewski, Rochale Machtynger, Berl
Praposzinski, Izrael Apel and Izrael Wajnsztok (they all perished in the Nazi
Shoah) and youth activists Mosze Kornfeld and Jehuda Zajde. To aid them, the
center in Warsaw sent them Baruch Szapiro and Eliasz, the organizers.

All of the Jewish professional associations in the city were led by the party.
In order to help the unemployed, the party opened a cooperative kitchen and a
childcare crèche at which the poor of the population received food for a small
sum.

In 1919 the first democratic municipal elections were held. The party
participated in these elections and in spite of the persecutions and pressure
by the government institutions, its representative Awraham Wajncwajg was
elected as a member of the municipality.

At the first meeting of the municipality, when Wajncwajg read his party's
platform (in Yiddish), the Endeks assaulted him with cries of scorn and
threats, and from then on looked for opportunities to take their revenge upon
him. They found such an opportunity with the outbreak of the Polish-Bolshevik
war. Even beforehand, the party suffered from government persecution for its
enthusiasm for the Russian October Revolution.

Using the excuse that the party building was used to hold anti-Polish meetings,
the police attacked the building and arrested its members Wajncwajg and
Szulman. A trial was staged against Wajncwajg and he was sentenced to a year in
prison.

The police persecutions against the leaders forced these people to leave the
city, and a few of them even emigrated. The party's activity was severely
weakened.

[Page 308]

The central committee sent member Awraham Wengrad to revive activities, but he
became ill and died in the Kielce hospital (and several thousand people from
all ranks participated in his funeral).

Only in 1926 did the party recover and renew its activities. In this year there
were new municipal elections. The party established an active election
committee and from that point on the party's work was renewed and spread to
numerous areas. The party also conquered most of the professional associations
in the city, which had been under the influence of the Reds (the
communists), like the Needle Workers, the Woodworkers, the Leather Workers and
others.

The most active members in these associations were Mosze Kornfeld and Menachem
Zylbersztajn, who was an exceptional speaker of enormous talent. As the
secretary of the Leather Workers' Association Menachem Zylbersztajn devoted
much of his energies to popularize the ideals of proletarian Zionism among the
workers and to battle the demagoguery of the Reds. In his
appearances he succeeded in persuading many of the youth divisions of this
association, among them Chaim Posloszni (who is in Israel) and Mordechai
Wajsbrot, Mosze Josef Szenker and Jechiel Zylbersztajn (who perished in the
Shoah).

This group, which he converted to the party, was the founding group of the
youth association of Poalei Zion called Jugend as well as the Union
of Working Children Jung-bor.

In 1928 the party organized the sport club Gwiazda Stern; the club
was headed by Mosze Kornfeld, Zelig Garfinkel (perished in the Shoah) Hersz
Strawczinski (now in Israel) and Jehuda Zajde (in Paris). They had divisions
for football, boxing, ping-pong and light athletics. The club also served as a
place for social and cultural activities.

The most active members of the club were Jerachmiel Rabinowicz, Izrael
Winogrodzki, Izrael Pinkusowicz, Lajb-Ber Rzyto, Icak Dziwicki, Jakob Gotowizna
(all perished in the Shoah) and Dawid Choderland, Lajbel Kuperberg, and Icza
Chornzawski (who are in Israel), Awraham Rembiszewski and Icza Oszerowicz (in
America).

The party also established a society for evening classes for laborers, at which
they learned languages, History (General and Jewish) and other subjects and at
which there were also cultural and literary lectures.

The party was affiliated with a dramatic circle called Yiddishe Arbeiter
Bine, which became well known in the area.

Among the party youth Jugend especially outstanding were Szaul
Goldman (in Israel), Mosze Kirszencwajg, Perl Strawczinska and Lajbel Kochen
(perished in the Shoah).

Between 1934-1936, when the Senacia authorities became more and
more Hitlerian and the persecutions against the Jewish population of Poland
grew worse, especially against the Jewish labor movements, the evening class
society was closed to laborers and its property was confiscated.

[Page 309]

After the general strike of the Jewish professional association on March 17,
1936, which was declared throughout Poland by the Land-Rat (The
National Council) of the professional associations, as a protest against the
anti-Semitic riots, Hersz Strawczinski, the party secretary, was arrested and
tried.

On May 1st, 1936, a giant demonstration was held jointly by the Poalei Zion
C.S. and P.P.S., which made a tremendous impression upon the entire population
of the city. As a result of this, the Endeks and their newsletter
Orndovnik began a venomous anti-Semitic campaign against the Jews
that caused frequent assaults on the streets upon the Jewish population in
Kielce. At the initiative of Poalei Zion (Left), Jewish patrols were set up in
the streets of the city. The groups of the meat workers excelled at these
patrols especially, as well as those of the sports clubs Stern and
HaPoel.

The Association of Friends of the Laborers of the Land of Israel
had a special place in party activities. Besides its propaganda value it was
very effective at gathering contributions for laborers in the Land of Israel.

A turning point in the development of the party was the decision, taken by the
convention of 1938, to participate in all the activities of the Zionist
movement, Congress, funds, etc. A new realm of action opened to the members of
the party, who participated with enthusiasm in all the tasks of gathering
contributions for the funds, distributing shekels and especially
activities for the League of Laborers of the Land of Israel, while
simultaneously, not neglecting the daily tasks of the political and economic
struggle to improve the lot of the workers and the professional associations.

This change had no small influence on creating closer ties with Poalei Zion
(C.S.) and HaShomer Hatza'ir. This was after the dispersal of the
cmmunist party in Poland by the Comintern. The Bund was also trying
to establish itself in Kielce at the time using the Communists. This situation
caused stronger connections between the Zionist-Socialist movements and to
joint public appearances.

A fine example of such joint activities were the performances on the first of
May of the last few years before the war and especially the great demonstration
in 1938, in which the performance of Kibbutz Borochov (under the influence of
Poalei Zion  C.S.) was especially notable.

One of the best chapters of the struggle of the Jewish laborers in Kielce were
the municipal elections in 1938.

In order to minimize the representation of the laborers and progressives in the
municipalities, the authorities passed a new law of personal-district
elections. The government divided the city into electoral districts in such a
way that the laborers would not be able to elect their representatives. Under
the agreement of the party with Poalei Zion (C.S.) and other non-party members,
a joint list of candidates was presented at the elections. As a result, the
Endek authorities lost in a landslide. In all the districts representatives of
the P.P.S. (the Polish Socialist Party) were elected with the help of the Jews
and the party's candidate Mosze Solrz was elected by a large majority.

This victory was the swan song of the party and of the entire Jewish population
in Kielce.

1939 arrived and together with it a world war and great Shoah, which wiped out
the Jews in the state of Poland, among them the Jews of Kielce in all their
political parties and public life.

[Page 310]

List of Activists in the Professional Movements in Kielce
During the last years before the Nazi Shoah

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